Metaphors and Career Dynamics
Objectives
• Understand the etymological background of the
term “career”.
• Awareness of the three different career
streams/approaches.
• Understand the meaning of “metaphor” and to
understand the possibilities but also risks of a
metaphorical approach to career studies.
• Be able to differentiate and explain a select
number of metaphors.
• To be able to think creatively and to generate
new metaphors.
Etymological Explanation
• The term ‘career’ originates from the latin
term “carraria” meaning “a road” or
“carriageway”.
Etymological Approach
• At the same time the expressions “car” or
“Carriage” are also connected to the latin
stem. These are the vehicles used to make the
trip on the road.
Defining “Career”
•
A career is “the evolving sequence of a
person’s work experiences over time.”
(Arthur, Hall, & Lawrence, 1989, Handbook of
Career Theory, p.8)
Internal vs. External Career
• The term “internal career” refers to the
subjective experience of work life while the
term “external career” refers to the
intersubjective (objective) observable part of a
career.
Perspectives
•
Three separate research literatures on the
topic of careers.
1) Career development movement
2) Sociological view
3) Career Management view
Career Development
• Views the career as a set of personal
psychologically-based issues.
• This movement tends to understand well the
processes of career decision making such as
initial educational and occupational choices
made by high-school students and college
graduates.
Sociological View
• Strongly influenced by evidence of the way in
which careers are determined by social
structural variables such as social class,
education and gender.
• Less attention is payed to individual differences
and individual action in pursuit of careers.
• It recommends policy and legislative
interventions designed to reduce inequalities
Career Management View
• Emphasizes the role of employing organizations in
career behaviour through the organizational
contexts they provide for individuals to pursue their
careers, and their management of human
resources.
• Underestimates both the limiting effects if the
wider context and the extent of individuals’
responsibility for, and control over, their own
careers.
• In terms of practice, it favours direct intervention
by management.
What is a Metaphor?
• “A metaphor is a figure of speech in which a
point is made about one thing by substituting
something else that demonstrates a particular
quality of the first in a dramatic way” (Inkson
2007, p. 13)
Metaphor and Epistomology
• “Metaphors are being central to human
discourse and understanding. Metaphors
connect realms of human experience and
imagination. They guide our perceptions and
interpretations of reality and help us
formulate our Visions and goals. In doing
these things, metaphors facilitate and further
our understanding of the world. (Cornellissen
2008, 8).
Deduced vs. Induced Metaphors
• Metaphors can be imposed or projected onto
an organizational reality or they can naturally
surface within the talk and sensemaking of
individuals and can be identified or elicited.
Deductive metaphors are imposed on and
applied to organizational situations and
metaphors that are inductively derived from
the in situ natural talk and discursive
interactions of people within organizations.
Exactness of Correspondence
Source: Bandl/Schmit (2010): From ‘GlassCeilings’ to ‘Firewalls’, in: Gender, Work and Organization 17 (5), p. 618
El-Sawad
• Study asking people to tell something about
their career. It turned out that all people used
metaphors to express their perception of their
career.
• Distinction between old, established and new
metaphors.
• Most people used more than one Metaphor.
Discipline and Punishment
• Many metaphors highlight the disciplinary
aspect and possibility to punish people as
their career can be hindered or fostered by
others.
Discipline and Punishment
• “Foucauldian analyses urge us to consider
how management control is secured via
disciplinary power, the exercise of which
Foucault (1977) saw to be achieved through
the use of various panoptical surveillance
techniques which promote self-surveillance
and self-managed self-discipline” (El-Sawad ,
p. 37)
Ancient Regime Punishment
• Brutal torture and executions in public in
order to repress the population. Punishment
has the purpose to pay back and to terrify.
Modern Punishment
• Professionals like parole officers, psychologists
etc. have power over prisoners and leads to
self-policing of the individual and the
population. Punishment has the purpose to
correct and to discipline.
Career as School-like-Surveillance
• This metaphor highlights the role of people
considered children or students by superiors
and their behaviour is constantly being
watched and evaluated. People are constantly
examined and evaluated as good or bad
performers. Only the good ones progress in
their career.
Career as Horticultural Activities
• Description of the career as being dependent
on others nurturing it. It highlights issues like
grow out own people, mentoring, foster or
hinder growth, make selection into whom to
invest limited resources.
Characteristics of the Horticultural Metaphor
Source: Baruch, Y. (2004): Managing Careers, p. 163.
Career as a Battlefield
• Career is seen as a battle including fighting,
wearing armour, being drilled, regimented,
tending wounds, digging in, waving flags of
surrender, parachuting to safety, hierarchy,
conformity, senior officers hold power to
select for promotion
Career as Wild West
• There are good and bad guys and not the just
are the good ones but those who are
successful and top-performers. But one has to
watch the back, be careful about not shooting
oneself in the foot.
Career as Sheep-Dipping
• “Sheep-dipping involves washing away dirt
and infectious material from animals. All
sheep are put through the sheep wash since if
one remained infected there would be a
strong risk of it infecting all the others” (ElSawad , p. 34.) The metaphor highlights
medical quarantine, and ensuring fit and
conformity.
Career as a Journey
• Reference is made to: career ladders, fast
paths, nice paths, flying, driving and steering,
paths, tracks, roads, and avenues, crossroads
and turning points, maps and charts, meeting
dead ends and getting lost, change gear.” (ElSawad , p. 27 p.)
Career as a Competition
• References include winners, losers, cheats,
injuries, fair or unfair promotion, fears other
may outperform, pressure to progress quickly,
career rat race.
Career as Life Imprisonment
• This refers to the perception of being trapped
in an organization or a position and serving a
sentence as a (voluntary/involuntary) prisoner.
People start to intertwine their personal
identity with their life job or/and organization
they are working for. Often they express little
desire to escape.
Career as a Nautical Maneuver
• It is about controlling, mapping the progress
and charting territory, not rocking the boat,
risk of drowning, treading water, being
channeled by others etc. “ To stay on course
directions must be followed and rules
obeyed”. (El-Sawad , p. 34.)
Problems with Metaphors
• 1. Errors of commission (when irrelevant
material is forced onto the object being
described)
2. Errors of omission (when key aspects of the
object are left out of account)
• 3. Errors of inappropriateness (when the
correspondences are trivial or non existing)
• 4. Errors of redundancy (when a metaphor
adds nothing to existing metaphors)
Conclusion
• Each metaphor provided a different lens to
view the same phenomenon. Each appear
valid , and there is some overlap between
them.
• In order to understand what careers we need
to facilitate various metaphors.
References
• Cornelissen et al. (2008): Metaphor in
Organizational Research, in: Organization
Studies 29 (1):7-22.
• Bandl/Schmit (2010): From ‘GlassCeilings’ to
‘Firewalls’, in: Gender, Work and Organization
17 (5), p. 618
Psychological Contracts
Objectives
• Be able to understand the concept of the
psychological contract and distinguish it from
other types.
• To be able to distinguish types of contracts
governing exchange relationships and types of
psychological contracts
• Understand contract violation and reactions
• Perceive careers as ongoing contract making
processes
Tacit Contract
• Individual psychological contract as
interpreted by a third person who is trying to
understand the terms of the exchange
relationship.
Normative Contract
• Terms of exchange relationships which
develop when a particular group of people
believe they have (as a group) particular terms
concerning their exchange with another group
or an individual.
Social Contract
• General belief about the acceptable terms of
exchange relationships in a society as third
parties perceive it.
Psychological Contract
• Terms of an exchange relationship between an
individual and another individual (or a
collective, i.e. an organization) as seen from
the perspective of the involved partners.
Psychological Contract
• “Psychological Contracts are beliefs, based
upon promises expressed or implied,
regarding an exchange agreement between an
individual and, in organizations, the employing
firm and its agents”.
• Rousseau, 2004, p. 120.
Psychological Contract
• Psychological contracts require perceived
(assumed) mutual recognition, negotiation
and agreement about the resources the
parties do exchange and the exchange must
be voluntary.
Types of Psychological Contracts
Rousseau (1995): Psychological Contracts in Organizations, p. 9, modified.
Transactional Contract
• Collaboration/exchange involve a clear project
within a specified time frame while
performance terms (expectancies) are clear
and explicit.
Transitional Contract
• This collaboration/exchange relationship does
not have a specific time frame or performance
requirements specified by the exchange
partners.
Balanced Contract
• The time frame for the duration of the
relationship is understood to be long-term but
there are clear performance expectations
which must be met and clear task behaviour.
Poor performance will not be tolerated even
though exchange partners go personally along
quite well.
Relational Contract
• The time frame for the exchange is openended and the performance standards are
implict. Important part of this contract is the
aspect that there is more than just a task
oriented exchange but both partners show
concerns about their well-being beyond and
above task oriented exchange. Poor
performance is tolerated (at least for a while)
if personal relationships are fine.
Balanced vs. Unbalanced Exchanges
Coyle-Shapiro et al (2008): Human Resource Management, p. 47
Economic Exchange
• There is a balance between the understanding
between the employee and the employer but
the exchange relationship is a transactional
(economic) type.
Mutual Exchange
• There is a balance between the understanding
between the employee and the employer and
the exchange relationship is of a relational
type.
Under-Investment
• The exchange relationship is characterized by
the employee adopting a relational social
exchange view while the employer adopts a
transactional exchange view.
Over-Investment
• Employees are taking a transactional point of
view of the exchange relationship while the
employer sees the exchange relationship
governed by a relational contract.
Violation Process
Source: Peyrat-Guillard (2008), Union Discourse and Perceived Violation of Contract,
in: Industrial Relations/Relations Industrielles, 63 (3): 479-501. p. 483.
Reneging
• Either the organization (or) employee does
not fulfill its promises (obligations) because it
is unable or unwilling to do so.
Incongruence
• Occurred because the parties acted in good
intent but the organization and the individual
did not have the same understanding of the
terms for the exchange relationship.
Salience
• Degree of difference between what has been
promised and what has been received.
Vigilance
• The vigilance demonstrated by the exchange
partners in that psychological contract
depends on the importance of the contractual
terms to them.
Comparison
• In the comparison process each party
compares how the other party has fulfilled
their promises and obligations to one another.
There is also a threshold which determines
the perception of a contractual breach.
Interpretation Process
• The discrepancy between the promised and
delivered contractual responsibilities will be
interpreted, i.e. the involved partners try to
understand what exactly happened and why it
happened.
Types of Reactions to Breaches
Source: Peyrat-Guillard (2008), p. 485.
Exit
• This is the simplest form of reaction to a
contract breach or violation. Either partner of
the contractual relationship can terminate
(exit) the relationship.
Loyalty
• Even though a breach or violation of the
contractual terms have been perceived the
partners may decide to accept this violation
and remain passively and just go on with the
relationship.
Voice
• Either party in the relationship can express its
concerns and demand reification of the
situation, i.e. the breach of the contract
should be rectified.
Neglect
This may include default or dereliction of a
duty by either partners, reduction of the
services offered to the other partner
(punishment) including destructive behaviour
as theft or physical aggression and damage.
Psychological Contracts
• Careers are continuous sequences of
renegotiations of psychological contracts
between employees (individuals) and
employers (organizations).
Career Capitalism
Human Capital Theory - Becker
• Human capital is a key explanatory variable for
competitive advantages of nations. Human
capital is measured in the level of education
(skills) in a population.
Human Capital and Productivity
output
Human Capital
Human Capital and Income
wage
Capital
Economic System
• “Under the dictum of making profits and
working cost effectively, the company
generally wants this (individual) contribution
at the best possible price in order to improve
its efficiency (…) The organization (company)
therefore acts as a buyer acquiring a resource
(human resource)” (Ielltatchich, p. 736)
Economic System
• “…if skilled work is scarce, the agents of the
career field will increasingly be able to impose
their own conditions on companies, thus
gaining relative importance in the exchange
process” (Illetatchich, p. 737)
Economic System
• “Being hired by a company also includes a
signal to the individual and the career field
about the perceived worth of a specific
combination of career capitals” (Illetatchich, p.
736)
Signaling Theory - Spence
costs
capabilities
Signaling Theory - Spence
good
signal
good experiences
The Intelligent Career Model
Source: Inkson/Arthur (2001): How to be a successful career capitalist, p. 52
Principles of Career Capitalism
• 1. Improvise your part
•
•
•
•
•
•
2. Enhance the script:
3. Keep good company:
4. Champion your industry:
5. Invest to maximize your ROI:
6: Key individual capital is knowledge:
7: Individuals own/are responsible for their career:
Symbolic Capital
• Luhman stresses that certificates represent an
institutionalized legitimation of a person’s
knowledge/capabilities (e.g. a University
Degree). Employers largely rely on that, i.e.
must trust that an issued certificate reliably
mirrors a persons knowledge (symbolic
capital). Hence, system trust is important for
career chances.
Social Capital
Only such relationships can be considered to
be social capital which can be used in order to
gain personal support. Bourdieu elaborates on
personal indebtedness and favors. Based on
studies in the Berber society the role of
“presents” are highlighted.
Cultural Capital
• This refers to the capability to know, be able
to make sense, and use cultural expressions of
the wider general social context. This refers to
not directly job or occupation specific but
nevertheless important knowledge.
Economic Capital
Any material thing a person can draw on
in order to exchange that for some other
good (material thing) is economic capital
(e.g. money, real estate, royalties etc.)
high
Economic
Capital
Social
Capital
Symbolic
Capital
Reliability
Cultural
capital
low
A Typology of Capital Forms
low
high
Transformability
Source: Litz (2012): Career Management,: Approaches, Concepts, Examples.
Social Inequality
• Bourdieu emphasizes the different “start up”
conditions for people when it comes to the
stock of capital they can draw on in a society
for their career.
Career Habitus and Fields
• “..an individual ‘born’ into a field has more
chance of succeeding than another who
would first have to learn (or to try to change)
the rules of the game (…) Capitals are also
inheritable, and habitus is incorporated
capital” (Illetatchich, p. 730)
Structure & Structuration
Social Structure
objective
Practices
Habitus
subjective
Career Field
• Is a patterned set of practice which suggest
competent action in conformity with rules and
roles.
• Is a playground or battlefield in which agents,
endowed with a certain set of field-relevant
capital, try to acquire, advance or maintain a
position.
Career Fields
• There are different levels or types of career
fields (each field is made up of a particular set
of rules, positions and actors) or systems.
• The Economic field can be subdivided into
industries and then companies constituting
each career fields on different levels.
A Typology of Career-Sub Fields
tight
Company
world
Free-floating
professionalism
loose
coupling
Relationship between actors
Self
employment
Chronical
unstability
stable
unstable
Actor configuration
Source: Ielltatchich et al. , p. 736
Company World
•
•
•
•
entry from the bottom
Well defined career ladders
Career is (usually) linked to seniority
High job security and loyalty
• -> key resource: hierarchical position
Self-employment
• Individuals working outside of organizations
• Comparable stable set of actors they are
dealing with
• Coupling is loose as autonomy and
independence is highly valued
• Dependence on a small number of actors (or
only one actor) is avoided.
• ->key resource: professional or role ethos
Free-Floating Professionalism
• Specialists working for different customers
• Have relations with only one customer at a
time
• Customer is very often an organization
• Short term relation but the link is tight
(interdependence is high)
• ->key resource: knowledge and reputation
Chronic Flexibility
• Frequent job changes
• Job change implies change not only from job
to job, but organization to organization,
industry to industry
• Configuration is highly unstable and coupling
is loose since there is little interdependence
• -> key resource: capacity for and speed in
conquering a new domain
References
• Iellatchitch, A./Mayrhofer W./Meyer M
(2003): Career Fields: A small step towards a
grand career theory? In: International Journal
of Human Resource Management 14 (5): 728750.
Knowledge and Careers
Knowledge and Organizations
tacit
Socialization
Externalization
Internalization
Combination
From
explicit
tacit
To
explicit
Source: Nonaka 1994): A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation, in: Organization Science, 14-37.
Tacit & Tacit (Socialization)
• Newcomer experiences consist primarily of
tacit-to-tacit knowledge transmissal. They may
have a richer knowledge base due to their
previous experiences. But on the other hand
as they may stay shortly they may discourage
experienced employees in a firm to share their
knowledge with them.
Explicit to Explicit (Combination)
• This kind of knowledge is relatively easily
accessible and while boundaryless careers
may also enhance an individual’s repository of
explicit knowledge this is not particularly bond
to an individual and his or her career. A firm
may relatively independently from individuals
acquire this kind of knowledge.
Tacit to Explicit (Articulation)
• Individuals who make their tacit knowledge,
the knowledge they have acquired in other
organisations explicit in a new firm help this
firm to develop new knowledge. It is also a
feature of an individual’s career experience
(and human capital value) what kind of tacit
knowledge he or she brings to the new
employer and accumulates over time.
Explicit to Tacit (Internalization)
• With frequent moves and short stays in
organisations the internalization of new
knowledge by the individual my become
problematic.
Hypertext Organisation
http://astimen.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/hypertext.jpg
Knowledge and Human Capital
Individual
Expertise
Experience
Systems
Routines/
Relationships
codified
tacit
Focus of
knowledge
Collective
Knowledge form
Source: Morris, T. (2000): Promotion Policies and Knowledge Bases, 144, in: Peiperl et al: Career Frontiers. Oxford University Press
Knowledge Levels
http://www.accenture.com/Global/Research_and_Insights/Outlook/By_Issue/Y2008/WorkforcePerformance.htm
Boundaryless Career and Knowledge
high
Excentric
Professional
Commoner
Organization
Man
Role of
Personal
Identity
low
low
high
Accumulation of Knowledge
Baker/Aldrich (1996): Prometheus Stretches, in: Arthur, M.B./D. Rousseau (eds.) Boundaryless Career, p. 134., mod.
Careers as Inheritance
Structure versus Individual Action
•Some inheritances we are born with, while others are
developed as a result of family influence like values
beliefs etc..
•Some inheritances are constructed around society’s
structures – for example rules or hierarchies
determining how much wealth or education you need
in order to receive certain opportunities.
Structure versus Individual Action
• By the time we commence our careers, perhaps in
our early twenties, we are mostly already
predisposed and prepared to conduct them along
predictable lines
• Social structure includes divisions by social class,
gender and race, as well as institutional structures
such as government rules and regulations,
centralized authority, and bureaucratic organization.
Structure versus Individual Action
• According to this view you may find your
career progress barred because you were born
“on the wrong side of the tracks”
• The “structure” principle suggests that careers
are mostly predetermined by larger forces
beyond individual control.
Structure versus Individual Action
Alternative view is that individuals can
transcend social structures through their own
energy.
Field and Habitus
• Field
• “Social spaces” in which people live their lives, and
are characterized by internal complexity and
hierarchy.
• Fields arise in education, religion, economic life…
others….?
• Fields contain institutions and individuals who
occupy dominant or less dominant positions.
Field and Habitus
• Habitus
• System of internal, personal, enduring dispositions through
which we perceive the world.
• Acquired through exposure to social conditions around us,
which we typically receive from, and share with, others in our
predominant social groups, including family.
• Habitus is the vehicle in which much of our inheritance of
values, interests, ideas, motivations and social connections
are incorporated.
Field and Habitus
• Gender provides an example; gender is a source of many
constraints, rules and norms, in different career fields. A
woman seeking to become a commando will face formal and
informal barriers tending to keep her out of these
occupations. At the same time, her habitus, informed by a
lifetime of indoctrination from family, school, community and
popular media, may be giving her the messages that she
should “stay away”
Occupations and Social Inequality
Based on the fact that in society there are
structured inequalities – in wealth, earnings, power,
prestige, and in access to medical care etc… – which
systematically favour some individuals more than
others
Social Class
Max Weber
Karl Marx
prestige/education/skills
wealth/income/ownership
Social Mobility
– The change of social class made by family
members from one generation to the next.
– Society become more meritocratic, social
class will become less important than
before = intergenerational mobility will
increase.
Labour Market Segregation
– Horizontal segregation: divides work into men’s
jobs and women’s job.
– Vertical segregation: divides work hierarchically
into the senior and the junior.
Class and Occupations
Inheritance and Social Structure
Gottfredson’s Theory
• Gottfredson shows that occupations can be
mapped according to prestige. For example,
“librarian” is a high-prestige/feminine job
whereas “construction worker” is a relatively
low-prestige/masculine job.
Self Concept
• The major elements determining the
developing self-concept are gender, social
class background, intelligence vocational
interests, competencies, and values. All these
elements are incorporated into one’s selfconcept at different stages of growing up.
Self Concept Development
Stage 1
Stage orientation to size and power
(ages 3-5 years)
• Stage 2
• Orientation to sex roles (ages 6-8 years)
Self Concept Development
• Stage 3
• Orientation to social valuation ( ages 9-13
years)
• Stage 4
• Orientation to the internal, unique self
• (beginning around age 14)
Careers and Family
• Perhaps more important than the influence of
parents’ occupations on their children’s
habitus and thereby their career attitudes.
• Parents’ supportiveness in parent-child
relationships also appear to facilitate selfconfidence in children.
Occupational Image
1) prestige
2) gender
Inheritance and Social Structure
Gottfredson’s Theory
Job Categorization Consensus
• Although there is some consensus concerning the ranking of
occupations according to prestige and sextype, there are
systematic differences in ratings people assign depending on
their social class belonging.
Existentialism
• Heidegger analyzed being and what it means
to be being-in-time.
• “Sein” (being) may be best studied by focusing
on one particular type of being (“Dasein”) that
is, Human Being.
Existentialism
• Authentic life vs. Inauthentic Life
• Freedom vs. Determination
Modes of Human Existence
• Past (Facticity)
• Present (Forefuture)
• Future (Existentionality)
Time and Being
• The experience and conciousness of our
ultimate death is the element which is setting
us free from our structural chains.
Adjustment and Match
Work Adjustment Theory
Work Adjustment Theory
• Both individuals and jobs are complex,
however this complexity can be reduced to a
finite set of variables.
– Abilities – person’s capacities and aptitudes
relevant to specific skills that may be required to
do a job.
– Values – express outcomes that the individual
might seek to obtain from the job.
Work Adjustment Theory
• Dawis and Lofquist (1984) mention active
modes of adjustment where the
individual adjusts by changing the ability
requirement and reinforcement patterns
of the environment. In reactive modes of
adjustment, the individual alters the
person rather than the environment.
Occupational Choice
• Measurement of both individual and
occupational characteristics can be used to
assess congruence or correspondence.
• Particular attention was given to the
measurement of apparently directly
applicable “vocational interest”.
John Holland: Vocational Personality Theory
Personality Types
• Most people are one of six personality types:
realistic, investigative, artistic, social,
enterprising, and conventional.
• People of the same personality tend to get
attrackted by a certain work place and job.
Consistency
• Consistency: Some pairs of types are more
similar than others. The types which are in an
adjacent line are more consistent, e.g.
realistic-investigative and the types which lie
in a opposite linie are most inconsistent.
Differentiation
• Differentiation: Difference between a person‘s
highest and lowest scores of the six
personality types. A high value means that a
person has a narrow range of interests and
has dominant interests.
• His/her personality pattern is very predictable
and attention is focused.
Identity
• Identity: A high personal identity means a
clear and stable profile of a person‘s goals,
interest and talents.
Work Environment Types
• One should choose an occupation/job which
type is similar to ones personality type.
• But most people are rather a combination of
types. Therefore, jobs in more than one
category may be suitable.
Example: Realistic Work Environment
• People having a realistic personality type
dominate this environment. They create a
realistic environment and value people who
are practical and mechanical.
• Occupations: Farmer, Fire Fighter, Police
Officer, Pilot, Carpenter, Electrician, Truck
Driver, Locksmith
Environment Assessment Technique
Realistic Investigative Artistic
Social Enterprising Conventional
35
10
20
50
60
25
17,5%
5%
10%
25%
30%
12,5%
ESRCAI
Edgar Schein: Career Anchors
• Definition: “enduring constellations of selfperceived, career relevant talents, motives
and values.”
• “Anchors” provide another obvious metaphor,
with connotations of heaviness and stability,
apparently implying that like a ship held fast
by its anchor, a career must have a means of
being held in place
Edgar Schein: Career Anchors
• Schein’s interest in “organizational fit”,
suggested that good matching could be
facilitated by organizational management,
where systems of employee development,
transfer, promotion and rewards could take
anchors into account.
• In changing times people perhaps need a solid
anchor to provide them with a clear sense of
identity and direction
Edgar Schein: Career Anchors
Organizational Choice
• It may well be important for individuals to
achieve congruence not just with their jobs
and occupations but also with their
organizations.
• The ‘fit’ metaphor can be applied to the
notion of ‘organizational fit’.
Organizational Culture Archetypes
•
•
•
•
Mercenary
Networked
Fragemented
Communal
Congruency
• Congruency: refers to the degree of
resemblance between a person‘s personality
type and environment types. The more
congruent the interaction between the
personality and the environment the better.
Career Decision Making
• If you can accurately assess both yourself and the job
or occupation in terms of goodness of fit, then,
following work adjustment theory, you are able to
predict satisfaction and satisfactoriness.
• Basic limitations in human psychology mean that
each of us has limited capability to judge with full
logic the wide ranging factors and contingencies
inherent in complex decisions.
Development and Roles
Development Stages
• There are patterns of usual developments and
researchers have undertaken steps to reveal
patterns.
• This is, they have identified intervals and
stages and the main challenges people have to
deal with in the course of their development.
Daniel Levinson:
The Seasons of a Life
• Adulthood is composed of alternating relatively
stable periods in which the individual works at
building a desired life structure, and shorter
transitional periods of questioning, reappraisal, and
often change.
Daniel Levinson:
The Seasons of a Life
Daniel Levinson:
The Seasons of a Life
Women’s Career Stages
• Levinson reported a second study, on women but besides him
other researchers considering women’s career cycles have
claimed that women’s careers have totally different dynamics
from men’s partly due to their role of child bearing and
rearing.
• Many studies of specific occupations show major disruptions
to women’s careers compared with men’s due to family
commitments
Women’s Career Stages
•
•
•
•
Explore
Focus
Rebalance
Revive
Social Role Theory
• People are occupying positions in a network of
positions. For each position there are
expectancies how to behave appropriately.
• Expectations are set by significant others (i.e.
individuals, groups) and moderated by the
institutional environment.
Social Role
• A social role is a bundle of
behavioural expectations related to a
particular position in a network
(hierarchy) of social positions
intended to trigger functional
behaviour.
Role Expectations
Each member of the role set has role expectations,
regarding how the focal person will discharge his
or her role, and communicates these expectations
directly and indirectly to the focal person. From
this the focal person receives a perception of what
the required role behavior is, and complies or
resists in his or her behavior.
Role Set
• Role set: is a set of other people who
attempt to define parts of the role of a
“focal person.”
Super’s Life Role-Space Theory
• Life unfolds in several arenas, in which
people will have to play roles. An
important arena is the workplace, others
are family and other “arenas” in which
we have to play roles.
Life Role Development
http://www.careers.govt.nz/educators-practitioners/career-practice/career-theory-models/supers-theory/
Exploration and Learning
• The exploration stage is critical for a person’s
life career and (early) learning is of major
importance.
• Bandura’s social-cognitive learning theory
explains why an individual should EXPERIENCE
a job/organization of interest and how this
exploration should be structured.
Life-Role Theory & Self Concept
• In the context of one’s career people develop
a self-concept. They become more and more
aware of their own person, the roles they play
within a given framework of expectancies.
Role Conflict
• Role ambiguity
• Person-Role conflict
• Intra-role conflict
• Inter-role conflict
• Role overload
Work Roles and Expectations
Supervisor/Boss
Peers/Coworker
Customers
Subordinates
Dahrendorf’s Types of Sanctions
• Must-expectations
• Should-expectations
• Can-expectations
New Careers
• Modern careers are much more mobile,
disrupted, discontinuous, zigzag,
improvisational and anarchical than age/stage
theory predicts.
• Careers may be less predictable, and more at
the mercy of chance, individual change and
whim, and the unstable economic system and
labour market, than maxi-cyclic theories, even
with built-in “mini-cycles”, make them appear.
Work Role Transitions
Role Transitions
• If careers are considered as sequences of
roles, then an important feature of careers
may be the process of transition between
roles: for example, entering one’s first job,
moving between education and employment
Role Transitions
– Preparation: the change is anticipated and
expected, and the individual seeks to be ready
for it. Part of this process is “saying goodbye.”
– Encounter: is the initial experience of a new
role, in which the individual encounters and
come to terms with the requirements and
expectations of the new situation. Employers
often provide a range of information to assist
newcomers to learn their roles quickly.
Role Transitions
– Adjustment: the individual adapts his or her
behaviour and perhaps even identity to
accommodate to the new role, or attempts
to enact or alter the role in such a way as to
accommodate it to his or her own identity
and motivation.
– Stabilization: the adjustment becomes
stable, the individual is in balance with the
organization. There are many forces that
may disturb this state
Role Development
Modes of Adjustment
high
Determination
Exploration
low
Replication
Absorption
low
high
Personal Development
Source: Nicholson, N. (1984): A Theory of Work Role Transition, in: Administrative Science Quarterly 29:
172-191. (modif.)
Affective Reaction
• “Positive feelings in the mode of replication,
for example, would be associated with
favorable perceptions of preservation and
stability … Negative feelings from replication
would carry associations of restriction,
helplessness, and obsolescence, as when the
person feels trapped ‘in a rut’” (Nicholson, p.
177)
Assumed Relationships
• Low discretion + low novelty -> Replication
• Low discretion + high novelty -> absorption
• High discretion + low novelty ->
determination
• High discretion + high novelty -> Exploration
Assumed Relationship
• Upward discretionary shift + low novelty ->
replication
• Upward discretionary shift + high novelty ->
absorption
• Downward discretionary shift + low novelty ->
determination
• Downward discretionary shift + high novelty ->
exploration
Assumed Relationships
• Low desire for control + low desire for
feedback -> replication
• Low desire for control + high desire for
feedback -> absorption
• High desire for control + low desire for
feedback -> determination
• High desire for control + high desire for
feedback -> exploration
Matching or Fit
• Think about the fact that organizations
(supervisors) may have a preferred mode of
role adjustment when they hire a new
person. If there is a match/fit between an
individual’s preferred adjustment mode and
the organization’s mode (supply and
demand) it is less likely that people will
experience problems (i.e., violation of the
psychological contract).
Uncertainty and Coping
• Taking a new job or working on a redesigned
job always includes a big portion of
uncertainty how to deal with this changes.
Lazarus/Folkman (1984) have proposed a
general model which is helpful in order to
become aware how people deal with this
uncertainty and try to cope if they experience
inequity between task requirements and
resources.
Lazarus/Folkman’s Model of
Uncertainty and Coping
Requirements
Resources
situation
Primary
evaluation
personality
Non equity
Secondary
evaluation
reevaluation
reevaluation
coping
Equity
Problem oriented
Affective oriented
Uncertainty and Coping
• The larger uncertainty the more emotional
stress the role change will cause and less
problem focused action will be observed.
• The challenge will be less likely tackled
successfully since stress means that the
problem will be either denied or the person
tends to escape (exit).
References
• Nicholson, N. (1984): A Theory of Work Role
Transition, in: Administrative Science
Quarterly 29: 172-191.
• Lazarus, R. S./S. Folkman (1984): Stress,
Appraising, and Coping.
Human Capital
Transaction Cost Theory
• “…according to transaction cost economics,
internalization of employment is appropriate
when it allows organizations to more
effectively monitor employee performance
and ensure that their skills are deployed
correctly and efficiently” (P. 33)
Resource Based View of the Firm
• “This theory suggests that core employee
skills (central to the firm’s competitiveness)
should be developed and maintained
internally, whereas those of limited or
peripheral value are candidates for
outsourcing” (p. 34).
Human Capital Theory
• “… human capital theorists suggest that
organizations develop resources internally
only when investments in employee skills are
justifiable in terms of future productivity” (p.
34)
Resource Based Theory – Human Capital
• (in)valueable
• (un)imitability
• (non-)rareness
• (non)-substitution
Uniqueness of Human Capital
• How available human capital is - since
skills include accumulated explicit and
tacit knowledge and a unique
configuration of capital forms – is more
or less unique for each organization.
Value of Human Capital
• “…we define value as the ratio of strategic
benefits to customers derived from skills
relative to the costs incurred…. Thus,
employees can add value if they can help
firms offer lower costs or provide increased
benefits to customers” (p. 35).
Shortage of Talent
• Due to the law of normal distribution (bell
curve) there are only a limited number of
people who are very talented in something.
There is therefore always a relative shortage
for such people. However, there are some
“public skills” who are not rare while some
skills are very rare.
Insourcing vs. Outsourcing
• It is argued in the article that the discussion
about insourcing vs. oursourcing should not
be reduced to an “either/or” distinction of
employment modes. Firms often buy and
make their human capital at the same time.
But in making the decision HRM must consider
some important variables.
Typology of HRM Architecture
Lepak/Gowan (2010): Human Resource Management, p. 421
Complexity and Contingency
• “…firms engaging in multiple sourcing modes
are likely to require distinct configurations of
HRM practices that facilitate the utilization
and deployment of human capital for each
separate employment mode” (p. 43)
HRM Architecture & Dynamics
Lepak/Snell (1999): The Human Resource Architecture, p. 44
Investment in Human Captial
• “As competition becomes more dynamic,
firms may not have enough time to fully
recoup their human capital investments. At
the same time, without these investments,
firms are likely to fall behind as barriers to
imitation are challenged and overcome” (p.
45)
Tobin’s q & Human Capital Market Value
• Q = Market Value – Book Value
• HCMV= Market Value – Book Value/ FTE
Fitz-Entz (2008): The ROI of Human Capital, p. 52
Human Capital Value Added & Human Capital
Return on Investment
• HCVA = Revenue – (Expenses – Pay and
Benefits) / FTE
• HCROI = Revenue – (Expenses – Pay and
Benefits)/ Pay and Benefits
Fitz-Entz (2008): The ROI of Human Capital, p. 49-52
References
• Lepak,D./S. Snell (1999): The Human Resource
Architecture, in: Academy of Management
Review 24 (1): 31-48.
• Fitz-Enz, J. (2009): The ROI of Human Capital.
American Management Association.
HRM Portfolio Analysis
Portfolio Analysis
• “Portfolio analysis strategy is a developmental
tool where performance categorization is
primarily to guide training and development
efforts as well as to suggest management
styles appropriate for each category of
employee” (p. 16)
HRM and Portfolio Analysis
• “Management should adapt the following
portfolio matrix model as the basis for
analyzing and managing its human resources”
(p. 17)
high
Consistent
Achievers
(workhorses)
Stars
low
Job Performance
A Portfolio Approach to HRM
Underachievers/
Underperformers
(deadwood)
Problem
Employees
low
high
Development Potential
Source: Shonhiwa/Gilmore (1996):, p. 17, modif.
Portfolio and Investment Decision
B
Performance
90
60
40
Potential
40
80
90
40
80
60
55
70
Costs
C
D
A
(Hypothetical values on a scale of up to 100%)
90
Employee Life-Cycle
• Employees tend to move from problem
employee over star and constant performer to
underperformer position during their working
life.
Risk Reduction
• “Risk reduction through diversification of the
portfolio, which can be done through
balanced recruitment of mixed talents” (p. 17)
Efficient HR portfolio
• “Translated into human resources terms, such
an attractive portfolio will produce a
workforce with high potential for contribution,
versatility in skills, stability of tenure, and
high-quality performance in relation to the
goals of the firm” (p. 17)
Stability and Flexibility
• Some types of employees contribute stability
to an organization while others do contribute
flexibility potential.
Contingency
• Keep in mind that the allocation of individuals
to a category is dependent on the job content
and job context (i.e. situational setting) and
can change if the situational setting is
changed.
HRM Portfolio and Career System
• “The objective is to systematically integrate an
individual’s performance appraisal
information with their career objectives. The
collated information will produce a
comprehensive manpower plan for the entire
company” (p. 21).
Evolutionary HRM
• The existing portfolio of human resources is
constantly changing in time. Hence it must be
considered from the perspective of balancing
flexibility and stability needs of a corporation.
HRM as Evolution Management
Deliberate Process
Enactment
Selection
Retention
Variation
Selection
Retention
Emergent Process
Source: Klimecki/Litz (2005): HRM as Intervention into the Evolution of Human Resources, p. 16, modified.
Variation/Enactment
• New skills are emerging/created for a
company during the recruitment process.
Selection
• Not all possible available skills (human capital)
recruited will be suitable for the prevailing
organizational purposes. Hence, those
individuals should be selected (entry &
promotion) who have the appropriate skills
and ability to adapt.
Retention
• Those individuals with necessary skills should
be retained in the organization. The retained
set of all individuals with their individual skills
are the portfolio of skills available to a
corporation at a certain point in time.
References
• Shonhiwa, S. (1996): Development of Human
Resources: A Portfolio Strategy, in: SAM
Advanced Management Journal, p. 16-23.
• Odiorne, G.S. (1984): Strategic Management
of Human Resources.
• Klimecki, R./S. Litz (2005): HRM as
Intervention in the Evolution of Human
Resources, in: Proceedings of the VII th IFSAM
(International Federation of Scholarly
Associations of Management) Meeting,
Gothenburg (Sweden).
Career Systems and Strategy
Mapping out Career Possibilities
• Career maps provide a representation to
career travellers of topography, terrain
and direction.
• They include formal, written information
such as lists of occupations and
industries, job advertisements and
descriptions etc…
Career Maps
• Frequently travellers set out with
inadequate maps or no maps at all.
• Learning where to find, or how to draw,
accurate maps of career landscapes is
an important skill of the career traveller.
• Big problem with maps is that the
information on them tends to become
obsolete quickly.
Driver’s Career Patterns
• linear
• Steady state
• Spiral
• transitory
Kanter’s Career Patterns
–Professional careers
–Bureaucratic careers
–Entrepreneurial careers
External
Fortress
Baseball Team
internal
Supply Flow
(Staffing Source)
A Typology of Career Systems
Club
Academy
Group Contribution
Individual contribution
Assignment Flow
(Hiring/Promotion Criteria)
Source: Sonnenfeld/Peiperl (1988), p. 591
Academy
•Development and retaining own
talent (professional growth is
important). There are lateral career
paths and possibility of early career
progress).
Club
• “A club or fraternal order focuses on
fair treatment for all members and
values loyalty proven by seniority
(i.e. job tenure)” (p. 590).
Basketball Team
• “Baseball teams are open to external
labor markets at all levels, and they
assign and promote their members
on the basis of individual merit.” (p.
590)
Fortress
• “A fortress is an institution under siege,
and it has low commitment to
individuals. It neither limits its labor
supply channels nor makes assignments
based on individual contributions; the
primary goal is institutional survival, even
at the cost of individual members” (p.
590).
Corporate Strategy
• Firms require different means of staffing their
organizations. Miles/Snow (1978)
distinguished between four different types of
strategies.
Defender
• “defenders, are firms that have narrow
product/market domains. They often are what
researches label core firms. Their leaders seek
mastery over a narrowly defined
organization.” (p. 594)
Prospector
• “Prospectors are companies that thrive on
product innovation and the creation of new
markets. Leaders of these firms pioneer
strategies that identify emerging trends in the
environment” (p. 594)
Reactor
• “reactors are those firms that are buffeted by
their environment because either they have
little control over vital resources or they lack
foresight regarding changes in the competitive
system” (p. 594). It is all about turnaround or
exit (deinvestment).
Analyzers
• “Analyzers, the third group, contain properties
that fall between the innovativeness of the
prospectors in new markets and the reliability
of defenders in stable markets. They do not
take the risks of prospectors, but they do excel
in the delivery of newer products and
services.” (p. 594).
Strategy and Career System Match
• “Each of the four strategic types corresponds
to a different set of career system practices
that provide the requisite degree of skill and
continuity in the work force.” (p. 594)
Matching Career Systems and Strategy
Analyzers
Academies
Clubs
Baseball
Teams
Fortress
Source: own figure
Defenders
Prospectors
Reactors
X
X
X
X
References
• Sonnenfeld, J. A./M. A. Peiperl (1988): Staffing
Policy as a Strategic Response: A Typology of
Career Systems, in: Academy of Management
Review 13 (4): 588-600.
Career Systems and Strategy
Career Climbing Frames
Topography replaces the
traditional career metaphor of
“career ladder” with that of
“career climbing frame.” A
climbing frame allows for a variety
of different types of career move.
Career Logics - Patterns
• Command Centered
• Constructional Logic
• Evolutionary Logic
Source: Gunz et al. (1998): New Strategy, wrong Managers?, in:
Academy of Management Executive,
Strategy and Career Logic - Patterns
Change Orientation
Flexibility
Broad
Efficiency
Prospector
(evolutionary OCL)
Analyser
(Constructional OCL)
Domain
Narrow
Defender
(Command Centered OCL)
Source: Gunz et al. (1998): New Strategy, wrong Managers?, in;Academy of Management Executive, p. 27, modif.
Strategy and Career Logic
Career Logic
change
No change
No change
o.k.
not o.k.
not o.k.
o.k.
Strategy
change
Source: Gunz et al. (1998): New Strategy, wrong Managers?, in;Academy of Management Executive, p. 28, modif.
high
low
Systematic of Selection
A Typology of Promotion Models
Tournament
Bureaucracy
Relationship
Seniority
low
high
Specified career path sequences
Source: Litz, S. (2009): Career Management, Forthcoming, Workingpaper
Bureaucracy
• Job tenure is only the necessary but not the
sufficient criteria for promotion. Job
incumbents will have to go through a specified
selection procedure and have to show their
expertise and suitability for higher level ranks
before being promoted. Selection and
promotion based on competence is key
(compare Max Weber’s concept of
bureaucracy).
Tournament
• “In the tournament mobility model, careers
are conceptualized as a sequence of
competitions, each of which has implications
for an individual’s mobility chances in all
subsequent selections” (Rosenbaum 1979, p.
222).
Tournament Model
Source: Rosenbaum (1979): Tournament Mobility, p. 230
Tournament
• The mobility process is clearly a highly
ordered one and not a random process.
• Employees promoted in the earliest period
have a much better chance of being further
promoted than employees not promoted in
the earliest period.
Tournament
• Employees promoted in the earliest period
have a much better chance of attaining
management levels than employees promoted
in later periods.
• Employees promoted in the earliest period
have a higher career ceiling and they have a
better chance of going high in the
organizational hierarchy.
Tournament
• Employees promoted in the earliest period
have a higher career floor (lowest possible
position) than employees promoted in later
periods.
• Early promotions do not offer assurances of
continued mobility. Employees promoted in
the earliest period are not assured of later
promotions.
Seniority
• Promotion depends heavily on job
tenure/duration of a membership an
individual. There are usually as well clearly
specified sequences before promotion can
take place (and there are rarely promotions
allowing an individual to “jump over” a
position in the hierarchy to occupy directly a
position way above the previous position).
Relationships
• Promotion is largely independent from job
tenure (duration) and promotion can involve
“jumping over” ranks in the hierarchy.
Promotion decisions are based on the
discretion of superiors in charge (goodwill).
Visibility and personal relationships are of key
importance for promotion.
References
• Rosenbaum, J. (1979): Tournament Mobility.
Career Patterns in a Corporation, in:
Administrative Science Quarterly 24: 220-241.
• Guntz, H.G./R. M. Jalland (1998): New
Strategy, Wrong Managers? What You Need to
know about Career Streams, in: Academy of
Management Executive 12 (2): 21-37.
Careers as Relationships
Small World and Weak Ties
• According to a study by Granovetter, the
majority of jobs are found via networking
(56%).
• Milgram and the “six degrees of separation”
principle.
Careers as Relationships
• A career can be seen not a succession of jobs,
but a succession of people who we have
worked with and who made a big difference,
for good or bad.
Networks and Networking
– Social Encounters: lowest level, chance meetings
with individuals whereby they influence each
other
– Relationships: individuals develop a longer-term
association enabling them to influence each other
and collaborate on a repeated or ongoing basis.
– Networks: are a combination of many
relationships, and it is this notion of networks that
provides the greatest potential for careers.
Networks and Networking
• “Networking” is seen by many as a key skill for
careerists, and has been shown to be related
to career success.
• Networking involves deliberately building
contacts and reputation in order to “get the
success you want by tapping into the people
you know”.
• Networks can provide reassurance, support,
motivation and knowledge relevant to the
individual’s career development.
Characteristics of Networks
– Connections can be developed purposely.
– Networking is a continuous process.
– Networks are reciprocal. That is, network
members put energy into the network as
well as taking it out, and offer help to
others as well as seeking help from them.
Sociogramm of a Network
Source: Andre/Taplin (2012): Organizational Behaviour, p. 226
Power
• Power: some networks are immensely
powerful in terms of potential benefit to one’s
career, while others are weak.
Density
• Density: a “dense” network is one where many
of the contacts are also contacts of each other,
whereas in a “sparse” network there would be
a wider range of contacts with little overlap
between them.
Relevancy
• Relevancy: a “relevant” contact in a network is
a contact which can actually contribute to
learning and career advancement.
Centrality
• Individuals may be very central in a network
or reside at the periphery or may be even
marginal.
• With increasing centrality in a network the
status of an individual participating in a
network (community) increases and therefore
its potential utility for career purposes.
Career Communities
• Typically involve the shared development, by
members, of meanings and priorities for the
working life that will assist them to make
sense of their career and undertake new
learning related to their careers.
Domain
• “A community of practice is not merely a club of
friends or a network of connections between
people. It has an identity defined by a shared
domain of interest. Membership therefore
implies a commitment to the domain, and
therefore a shared competence that distinguishes
members from other people”.
Source: http://www.ewenger.com/theory/
Interaction
• “In pursuing their interest in their domain,
members engage in joint activities and
discussions, help each other, and share
information. They build relationships that
enable them to learn from each other.”
Source: http://www.ewenger.com/theory/
Focus on Practice and Learning
• Members of a community of practice are
practitioners. They develop a shared
repertoire of resources: experiences, stories,
tools, ways of addressing recurring
problems—in short a shared practice.
Source: http://www.ewenger.com/theory/
Career Communities
Source: Parker, P. et al. (2004): Career Communities: a preliminary exploration of member-defined career support structures,
in: Journal of Organizational Behavior 25: 489-514.
Career Communities
Source: Parker, P. et al. (2004): Career Communities: a preliminary exploration of member-defined career support structures,
in: Journal of Organizational Behavior 25: 489-514.
Career Communities
Source: Parker, P. et al. (2004): Career Communities: a preliminary exploration of member-defined career support structures,
in: Journal of Organizational Behavior 25: 489-514.
Mentorship & Career Communities
• In the context of careers, a mentor is normally
understood as being an older, more
experienced person who is able on the basis
of that experience to provide help to a
younger person in developing his or her career
through its early stages.
Mentorship
• Informal mentorship.
• Formal mentorship
Types of OCB and Career
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
1. Helping
2. Sportsmanship
3. Commitment
4. Compliance
5. Initiative
6. Civic Virtue
7. Self-Development
Source: Organ et al. (2006): Organizational Citizenship Behaviour, p. 297
Costly Signaling
• “It proposes that these costly traits or
behaviors were selected because they convey
a credible signal about the underlying
qualities of the signaler that the observer
cannot otherwise assess directly or easily.”
(Deutsch Salomon, p. 186)
Handicap Principle
• “In sum, the handicap principle views those
who engage in acts of generosity or providing
a collective good neither as behaving
altruistically in hope of reciprocation, nor as
sacrificing for the good of the group. Rather,
they are viewed as competing for status and
its perquisites.” (Deutsch Salomon, p. 188)
Differentiation
• “This difference in cost enables employees
with superior capabilities to separate
themselves from those with inferior
capabilities by engaging in OCBs that the latter
would find too costly to perform.” (p. 190)
References
• Deutsch Salomon,S./Y. Deutsch (2006): OCB as a
Handicap: An Evolutionary Psychological
Perspective, in: Journal of Organizational
Behavior 27 (2): 185-199.
• Wenger, E. (1998): Communities of Practices.
Cambridge University Press.
• Parker, P. et al. (2004): Career Communities: a
preliminary exploration of member-defined
career support structures, in: Journal of
Organizational Behavior 25: 489-514.
Game Theory and Networks
Prisoner’s Dilemma
Source: Axeldrod (1984): The Evolution of Cooperation, p. 10.
Prisoner’s Dilemma
• The prisoner’s dilemma is based on the
general problem that “what is best for each
person individually leads to mutual defection,
whereas everyone would have been better off
with mutual cooperation” (Axelrod 1984, p. 9)
Conclusion
• “…two egoists playing the game once will both
choose their dominant choice, defection, and
each will get less than they both could have
gotten if they had cooperated” (Axeldrod
1984, p. 10)
Iterated Prisoner’s Dilemma
• “This reasoning does not apply if the players
will interact an indefinite number of times.
And in most realistic settings, the players
cannot be sure when the last interaction
between them will take place” (Axelrod 1984,
p. 10).
Cooperation or Defection?
• In the context of being part of career
communities what strategy pays off –
cooperation or defection? There are various
strategies available, like: always cooperation,
always defection, random choice etc.
Tit for Tat
• In the case there is continuing interaction
there emerged one particular strategy in
computer simulation to be the best strategy,
and this one is called “tit for tat”.
Tit for Tat
• Tit for tat strategy means: “... Avoidance of
unncessary conflict by cooperating as long as
the other player does, provocability in the face
of an uncalled for defection by the other,
forgiveness after responding to the
provocation, and clarity of behavior so that
the other player can adapt to your pattern of
action” (Axeldrod 1984, p. 20)
Rule No 1: Don’t be envious:
• Comparing your own success with others leads to envy.
“And envy leads to attempts to rectify any advantage the
other player has attained. In this form of Prisoner’s
Dilemma, rectification of the others’ advantage can only be
done by defection. But defection leads to more defection
and to mutual punishment. So envy is self-destructive”
(Axeldrod 1984, p. 111)
Rule No. 2: Don’t be the first to defect!
• “Of course, one could try to ‘play safe’ by
defecting until the other player cooperates,
and only then starting to cooperate. The
tournament results show, however, that this is
actually a very risky strategy. The reason is
that your own initial defection is likely to set
off a retaliation by the other player” Axelrod
1984, p. 117)
Rule No. 3: Reciprocate
• “After cooperating on the first move, tit for tat
simply reciprocates whatever the other player
did on the previous move. This simple rule is
amazingly robust” (Axelrod 1984, p. 118)
Rule Nr. 4: Don’t be too clever!
• “If you are using a strategy which appears
random, then you also appear unresponsive to
the other player. If you are unresponsive, then
the other player has no incentive to cooperate
with you.” (Axelrod 1984, p. 122).
Enlarge Shadow of the Future
• “By binding people together in a long-term,
multilevel game, organizations increase the
number and importance of future
interactions, and thereby promote the
emergence of cooperation among groups too
large to interact individually” (Axeldrod 1984,
p. 131.
Change Payoff
• “If the punishment for defection is so great
that cooperation is the best choice in the
short run, no matter what the other player
does, then there is no longer a dilemma (…) It
is only necessary to make the long-term
incentive for mutual cooperation greater than
the short-term incentive for defection”
(Axelrod 1984, p. 134).
Teach people to care
• “A selfish individual can receive the benefits of
another’s altruism and not pay the welfare
costs of being generous in return” (Axelrod
1984, p. 135).
Teach reciprocity!
• “Reciprocity is certainly not a good basis for a
morality of aspiration. Yet it is more than just
the morality of egoism. It actually helps not
only oneself, but others as well. It helps others
by making it hard for exploitative strategies to
survive.” (Axelrod 1984, p. 137)
Improve recognition abilities!
• “The ability to recognize the other player from
past interactions, and to remember the
relevant features of those interactions, is
necessary to sustain cooperation” (Axelrod
1984, p. 139)
PAVLOV Strategy
• If both sides have mutually defected in the
last round of interaction, the strategy, based
on hope and forgiveness would resume the
next round of interaction with cooperation.
PAVLOV Strategy
• “Win-stay, Lose-Shift, by offering cooperation
when both parties have lost out through
cheating on a previous encounter, seems to be
the most effective of all the trigger strategies
that have so far been investigated” (Fisher, p.
175)
References
• Axelrod, R. (1984): The Evolution of
Cooperation.
• Fisher, L. (2008): Rock, Paper, Scissors. Game
Theory in Everyday Life. Basic Books.
International Career Logics
Perlmutter’s Typology of MNCs
• Perlmutter has proposed a very influential
typologie of MNCs. The assumption is that
depending on the “orientation of the topmanagement team” qualitatively different
approaches of conducting business may be
chosen.
Heenan/Perlmutter: Staffing Policy
Source: Philips/Fox (2003): Compensation strategy in Transnational Corporations, In: Management
Decision, 465-476.
Typology of OICL
Mayerhofer, W. (2001): Organizational International Career Logics (OICLS), p. 139
Official and Inoffical Career Logics
• It is important to distinguish
between the espoused-theory and
the theory-in-use.
Complexity
• “…MNCs can operate under more than one
OICL at the same time. However, for certain
areas like specific positions or groups of
people or certain regions, one can assume
that there is a modal OICL that dominates the
assignments.” (Mayerhofer 2001, p. 137)
OICL and Role of Subsidiaries
• It is important to align the career logics
employed while assigning expatriates with the
strategic importance, i.e. role of the
subsidiaries, to which they are assigned.
Types of Subsidiaries: Bartlett/Goshal
Subsidiary roles (modified from Bartlett & Ghoshal, 1986).
International Career and Psychological
Contract
Source: Yan et al. (2002): International Assignments for Career Building, in:
Academy of Management Review 27: 373-391.
References
• Mayerhofer, W. (2001): Organizational
International Career Logics (OICLS), in:
Thunderbird International Business Review 43
(1): 121-144.
• Bartlett, C.A./S. Goshal (1989): Managing
Across Borders. The Transnational Solution.
Harvard Business School Press, Boston.
Career Success
Successs
• “All men seek one: success or happiness. The
only way to achieve true success is to express
yourself completely in service to society. First
have a definite, clear, practical ideal – a goal,
objective. Second, have the necessary means
to achieve your end – wisdom, money,
materials, and methods. Third, adjust your
means to that end”. (Aristotle, quoted in
Baruch 2004, p. 77)
Objective Success
• “Objective career success can thus be defined
as the quantifiable value that attaches to any
social position, in terms of current utilities
(such as standard of living) plus the range of
values that, actuarially, could be reasonably
expected to accrue in the foreseeable future”
(p. 138)
Objective Success
• status and rank (Hierarchical position)
• material success (wealth, property, earning
capacity)
• social reputation, prestige, influence
• knowledge and skills
• friendships, network connections
• health and well-being
Subjective & Objective Success
• “…the experiential world of the traveler (the
subjective career) – set against the identifiable
features of the landscape and the traveler’s
location within it (the objective career)” (p.
137)
Subjective Success
• “Success in this context is the retrospective
sense making we attach to our past travels,
how we feel about our current position on the
map, and the nature of the future destinations
we can visualize in our minds. We may
reconstruct our paths with regret or pride,
contemplate the present with dissatisfaction
or contentment, and anticipate the future
with foreboding or hope” (p. 138)
Derr’s Subjective Career Success
Framework
•
•
•
•
•
Getting-ahead
Getting-secure
Getting-high
Getting-free
Getting-balanced
A Study of Derr’s Career
Aspirations
Arthur et al. (1989): Handbook of Career Theory, p. 463
A Typology of Career Success
high
Satisficing/
contented
Dominant/
Gratified
Subjective
success
low
Disappointed/
Discontented
low
Striving/
Unfulfilled
high
Objective Success
Source: Nicholson/de Waal-Andrews, p. 142, modified.
Autonomy vs. Comparison
• When it comes to evaluating objective and
subjective career success it is important to see
if we judge them based on our own set of
success criteria – independently of others – or
if we put ourselves into comparison with
others.
Autonomy and Comparison
self
I.
II.
IV.
III.
Orientation
others
objective
Source: Heslin (2005): modified
subjective
Evolutionary Theory and Career
• “In former times, and in less developed
societies, the notion of a career has less
meaning, since one’s path is mapped out at
birth, though one’s lifetime achievements
continue to be of extreme importance to
reproductive fitness” (Nicholson, N./DeWaals
A p. 139)
Evolutionary Theory and Career
• “In our own society the career has become a
primary vehicle for the advancement of one’s
individual interests and those of one’s kinship
group” (Nicholson, N./DeWaals A p. 140)
Evolutionary Theory and Career
• “…it is not enough merely to reproduce, but it
is also important that one can support one’s
offsprings’ prospects for survival and
prosperity. (…) It is highly desirable to be born
into a resource-rich environment where
nurturance and parental investment will
enhance chances of survival in a potentially
dangerous and competitive world” (Nicholson,
N./DeWaals A p. 139)
Evolutionary Theory and Career
• “Reproductive fitness has to be signaled
where mate choice operates. Success among
social animals is therefore the ability to be
recognized as ‘fit’ – a mix of resource richness
plus outward signifiers of ‘good’ genes. (…)
Many extravagances of human achievement
and display are open to a similar
interpretation (i.e. the handicap principle, S.
L.” (Nicholson, N./DeWaals A p. 139)
Status Seeking and Evolution
• “Evolution having implanted us with a statusstriving module has done so without an
accompanying ‘off’ switch. Without the radical
discouragement of major rebuttal and failure,
the status drive does no more than decline
gradually in most people” (Nicholson,
N./DeWaals A p. 144).
References
• Nicholson, N./DeWaals A. (2005): Playing to Win: Biological
Imperatives, Self-Regulation, and Trade-Offs in the Game of
Career Success, in: Journal of Organizational Behaviour 26
(2): 137-154.
• Heslin, P.A. (2005): Conceptualizing and Evaluating Career
Success, in: Journal of Organizational Behaviour 26: 113136.